'Mass Effect' Controversy: How Video Games Have Freed Storytelling

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When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in "The
Final Problem" in 1893, grief-stricken readers took to London's
streets wearing black armbands. More recently, "Star Wars" fans
howled in outrage when George Lucas changed certain scenes in the
Blu-ray release of the original film trilogy. Such storytelling
controversies still can't compare to gamer fury over how the
best-selling "Mass Effect" video games ended.

The "Mass Effect" games carry greater expectations than any book,
film or TV series ever could. Such games liberate the audience
from the usual tyranny of following a single, defined storyline —
gamers play the starring role as Commander Shepard (male or
female) in a
science fiction universe where they can romance favorite
companions and decide the fate of entire alien species. But in
the final act, "Mass Effect 3" yanks away the freedom gamers have
enjoyed over the 120 hours to 150 hours spent playing the "Mass
Effect" trilogy.

"Players are upset because the big finish, the real 'end' to it
all is definitely more general, and nearly entirely out of player
control," said Lucas Siegel, editor of Newsarama (a sister
website of InnovationNewsDaily). "After the hundreds of choices
you make, there are only small differences in the end, and some
things, the fates of certain parts of this world, are left open
to interpretation, rather than being flat-out told."

"Mass Effect" fans did much more than just complain bitterly —
they clamored to reclaim their storytelling freedom by demanding
new story endings from the game creators at Bioware. The uproar
finally led Bioware to make a
surprise announcement on March 21 that it would create new
game content to provide "more clarity for those seeking further
closure to their journey."

The storyteller and the audience

Many media critics looked down their noses at "entitled" gamers
for demanding new story endings, and similarly sniffed at Bioware
for "caving in" to fan pressure rather than sticking with its
artistic vision. But gamers have a right to feel entitled up to a
point, Siegel said.

That's because video games such as "Mass Effect" represent a very
different kind of storytelling from the books, films and TV shows
that have dominated modern culture. Whereas readers receive the
gospel of "Harry Potter" according to J.K. Rowling and moviegoers
receive the gospel of "Star Wars" according to George Lucas,
gamers stand alongside Bioware at the storytelling altar in
shaping the "Mass Effect" plot.

To its credit, Bioware has recognized that fact by showing
enormous respect to "Mass Effect" fans, Siegel said.

"When speaking with
Mac Walters, lead writer on "Mass Effect 3" and the plotter
of the "Mass Effect" comics, he spoke of the big difference in
writing the comics, where you simply tell the story, and the
games, where the player is helping craft specifics as the greater
narrative unfolds," Siegel told InnovationNewsDaily.

Such a balance of storytelling power simply does not exist for
most books, films and TV shows. When fans complained about the
endings to TV shows such as "Lost" or "The Sopranos," they never
disputed the authority of the creators to decide those endings.
Even when Doyle delighted fans a century ago by resurrecting
Sherlock, he remained the authoritative storyteller for the great
detective.

The mutating story

By contrast, video game stories don't have to follow a singular
vision defined by a master storyteller (although this naturally
varies among games). Instead, the stories grow from the play
experience — the choices made within games create personalized
player performances.

"Because game performances are infinitely various, we have a
situation where the emphasis is on the performance itself and on
the variations," said Roger Travis, director of the Video Games
and Human Values Initiative at the University of Connecticut.

Such performances resemble more ancient forms of oral
storytelling such as telling improvised tales or re-enacting epic
poems, Travis said. As a professor of classics, he pointed to how
Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" evolved as oral stories
performed by Greek bards on a nightly basis.

Performing live rather than reading from a book or showing a film
gave the bards the freedom to raise the possibility of many
different story versions — not unlike how "Mass Effect" allows
for alternate storylines to play out. "If the hero died in one
version of the story on one night, he didn't have to die another
night," Travis explained.

That fluid nature of oral storytelling also allowed the Greek
bards to listen to audiences, other bards and patrons, and to
reshape stories in response, Travis said. If critics want to
criticize Bioware for "caving in" to fans, they might as well
criticize Homer for having evolved the story of "The Iliad" and
"The Odyssey" in response to audiences 2,500 years ago.

The return of story freedom

The "Mass Effect" controversy does not signal the death of
artistic vision or storytelling authority, Travis said. But he
suggested that new video
game experiences may win over more people from the older,
more static forms of storytelling.

"I think authored media will lose some of the prestige they've
had as people expect to get more rewarding and interactive
experiences from interactive media," Travis said. "But authored
media will always have a place because we want to hear about some
genius' vision."

Still, even the geniuses must prepare to face new audiences with
ever-greater expectations for immersive storytelling that also
gives freedom of choice.

"The fact that games of this generation (and only moreso in the
future) can deliver cinema-quality storytelling and immersion
while also giving consumers greater control than anywhere else
completely changes not just expectations, but how creators have
to approach narrative," Siegel said.